Cutting for Stone
Twin brothers born in an Addis Ababa mission hospital grow up among its doctors and nurses
Twin brothers, a hospital and a country in change
Abraham Verghese's novel begins at Missing Hospital in Addis Ababa, where twin brothers Marion and Shiva are born to a nun who works as a nurse and to a British surgeon. The brothers grow up in the hospital among its doctors and nurses, in an Ethiopia that is changing around them. Verghese is himself a physician.
Who will enjoy it
Readers who enjoy literary fiction that puts character and language first.
More about this book
Who
The twins Marion and Shiva Stone, and the staff of Missing Hospital.
World
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from the 1950s onward.
What makes it different
The novel is told by one of the twins, and medicine runs through the story and the writing.
Feel
Epic and absorbing.
Facts
Genre
Literary Fiction · Medicine · Ethiopia · Family
Length
655 pages · ≈ 19 h
Also in the collection: Best Books for Nurses
Being Mortal
The Nurses
Call the Midwife
Notes on Nursing
When Breath Becomes Air
Burnout
A Farewell to Arms
The English Patient